Tracking Song and The Call of the Wild

Matthew Groves · 17 Jun 2007, 16:13 · from 2007-June.txt.gz

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From: matthewalangroves at gmail.com (Matthew Groves)
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 11:13:34 -0500
Subject: (urth) Tracking Song and The Call of the Wild
Message-ID: <39ed084f0706170913i46584356k8ff351dc6ebd6598 at mail.gmail.com>

On Nashhwonk's chair as his antlers, Roy writes skeptically:
> He's sitting on his own head?? "Sitting in the very center of it [the
Sleigh
> track], in a massive, high-backed chair of dark wood, was a man bigger
than
> I had ever conceived that a man could be. He was facing me [. . .]"
> Nashhwonk later rose from the chair and walked around it. Is this incident
> "just a matter of how literal we're being"?

Yes. If you accept that the Wiggikki are a wolf tribe, you should have no
trouble accepting that Nashhwonk is a moose. All the animal tribes are
humanoids that have weapons that are keyed to their real-wold animal
counterparts. Mimmunka has a "polearm ending in cruel hooks, like fishhooks,
made from the ribs of some large animal." These represent Mimmunka's claws.
The Pamigaka have "short-handled tools with heavy, curved blades." These
represent the Pamigaka's tusks.

On the meaning of Cutthroat's name:
> Okay, but the name was given to him *after* he departed the Sleigh *by*
the
> wolfmen. They knew nothing of his past. [...]
> You earlier
> suggested that the "birthmark" was an analogue of Buck's forced submission
> by a rope around the neck. You also suggest the name Cutthroat is a
> reference to a hypothetical, past analogue of Buck's well-earned
reputation
> as a man killer. And, yes, a symbol can represent more than one thing. The
> problem for me is, it is Cutthroat who is carrying the mark that should be
> on his victim(s). [...]

Maybe I should be clearer about at what level I'm looking at the story when
I make these claims. There's more than one symbol here, and more than one
meaning for each. Ultimately, it's Wolfe who gave Cutthroat his name, and
I'm looking for what *he* might have meant by it. Also, I'm keeping the
"birthmark" and the nickname somewhat separate as symbols. And I still like
Borski's "mark of Cain" interpretation." So I think Cutthroat's "birthmark"
represents his exile via the Cain story and his loss of freedom via CotW.
The name "Cutthroat" means "killer," so I think Wolfe is saying that this
guy is a killer in some sense.

On the divinity of "you" in the story:
> He may not have regained it all, but he did remember who "you" was, and it
> was not the winged man, who was "with you".

I don't read it this way. I think the "you" at the end of the story is
plural, or collective. He sees some strange thing coming from the east,
speculates that it's another sledge, but no, it couldn't be on this melting
snow, and it's too large, so maybe the warmth revived Roller, but no it's
even bigger than that, "As big as a hill, and there are *people standing on
it*." (Emphasis mine.) Then he recognizes them for what they are: the Great
Sleighers. And then he sees something strange: "Who is that tall man with
you [i.e., with y'all people standing on the Sleigh]?" So it's not necessary
to assume that Cutthroat has remembered anything at all.

Matt G.
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